As I said I would, I am going to tell you about my special needs disability and I have dyspraxia.

Dyspraxia can affect any or all areas of development – intellectual, emotional, physical, language, social and sensory – and may impair a person’s normal process of learning. Usually, it’s said to be an impairment or immaturity of the organisation of movement, but associated with this may be problems of language, perception and thought.

Problems arise in the process of forming ideas, motor planning and execution, since people with dyspraxia have poor understanding of the messages their senses convey and difficulty relating those messages to actions.

This means physical activities are hard to learn, difficult to keep, and hesitant and awkward in performance.

Dyspraxia affects each person in different ways and at different stages of development. How an individual is affected is inconsistent, too. For example, one day they may be able to do a specific task, the next day they can’t.

Developmental dyspraxia is an impairment or immaturity of the organisation of movement. It is an immaturity in the way that the brain processes information, which results in messages not being properly or fully transmitted. The term dyspraxia comes from the word praxis, which means ‘doing, acting’. Dyspraxia affects the planning of what to do and how to do it. It is associated with problems of perception, language and thought.

Dyspraxia is thought to affect up to ten per cent of the population and up to two per cent severely. Men are four times more likely to be affected than women. Dyspraxia sometimes runs in families. There may be an overlap with related conditions.

Other names for dyspraxia include Developmental Co-ordination Disorder (DCD), Perceptuo-Motor Dysfunction, and Motor Learning Difficulties. It used to be known as Minimal Brain Damage and Clumsy Child Syndrome.

Statistically, it is likely that there is one child in every class of 30 children. We need to make sure that everyone understands and knows how best to help this significant minority.

Gross motor co-ordination skills (large movements):

Poor balance. Difficulty in riding a bicycle, going up and down hills (Couldn’t ride a bike till I was 15)

Poor posture and fatigue. Difficulty in standing for a long time as a result of weak muscle tone. Floppy, unstable round the joints. Some people with dyspraxia may have flat feet (I have hypermobility)

Poor integration of the two sides of the body. Difficulty with some sports involving jumping and cycling

Poor hand-eye co-ordination. Difficulty with team sports especially those which involve catching a ball and batting. Difficulties with driving a car

But just because I have this special needs problem, it doesn’t make me and just because I have dyspraxia doesn’t mean that dyspraxia has me. I was diagnosed when I was 15 and due to the fact that I had lived with this for so long meant that I had found ways around it. Dyspraxia has helped me to answer a lot of questions about myself and the support that I now get is helping me to cope more with it.

It’s not a bad thing to have a special need because you have the need, the need does not have you and you can find ways around it.

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About oddchildout

18 and at University. Good with computers, well I have to be when I work with them and getting a degree in them, I guess. I live at home with my parents and two sisters. Not much really, but I am the Oddchildout.

7 Responses to Dyspraxia

My sister suffers from dyspraxia. After reading your post, I’ve realised that I take it for granted a bit. I always thought mum was being hard on her when I thought she just lacked self-confidence and esteem but, it looks as though it is far more than physical coordination issues.

Thanks for looking around. Yes, dyspraxia is not very well known and so people think it is more physical because dislexia is more mental, but dyspraxia affects both aspects and self confidence is a big problem I have found because you start thinking that you are not normal or that you are the odd one out, but you have just got to remember that everyone is different and there is no such thing as normal.

Wow, incredible blog layout! How long have you been blogging for? you made blogging look easy. The overall look of your site is wonderful, as well as the content!. Thanks For Your article about Dyspraxia | Keep Being Strong .

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18 and at University. Good with computers, well I have to be when I work with them and getting a degree in them, I guess. I live at home with my parents and two sisters. Not much really, but I am the Oddchildout.